During the past few years, metal based additive manufacturing technologies have evolved and may enable the direct fabrication of heterogeneous objects with full spatial material variations. A heterogeneous object has potentially many advantages and in many cases can realize appearance and/or functionality that homogeneous objects cannot achieve. In this work we employ a preprocess computing combined with a multi-objective optimization algorithm based on the modeling of the LENS deposition of multiple materials to optimize the fabrication process. The optimization methodology is applied to the fabrication of cermet composite (using Inconel 718 and ceramic powders) with prescribed material feeding rates. The multi-objective optimization considers that the energy consumption and the material waste during the fabrication process should be minimized, while the probability of the melting of the powders should be maximized. The optimization software modeFRONTIER® is used to drive the computation procedure with a MATLAB code. The results show the design and objective spaces of the Pareto optimal solutions, and enable the users to select preferred setting configurations from the set of optimal solutions.

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